Curried braising greens and veggies over rice

From what I understand, a combination of collard greens (or other braising greens) and coconut milk is common in some parts of Africa. When I first saw that combination, I thought it sounded quite strange--I'm used to salty or bitter collards. However, I realized there's a plethora of recipes on the internet combining the two, so I thought I would give it a try. I decided to make it Thai, though, by cooking the collard greens in fabulous coconut-based Curry Simple Thai red curry sauce.

This is the kind of meal that would have horrified me as a child. Where's the meat? What's all this green stuff? My husband and I loved it. Here's the recipe.

Curried Braising Greens & Veggies Over Rice
4-5 servings

1/2 lb. of collards or other braising greens (turnip greens, kale, etc.)
1 onion
optional: a mix of other vegetables you want to use (carrots, potatoes, turnips, tomato--I used 2 carrots, a handful of new potatoes, and 2 turnips)
1 bag of 3-serving Curry Simple Red Curry Sauce
1 can of light coconut milk (NOT sweetened coconut drink mix)
6 T of cashews
3 c. of cooked brown rice

Start your brown rice cooking. (The kind we use takes about 50 minutes.)

Rinse your braising greens well (dirt tends to cling to them--I soaked mine in bowls of water three times), and tear off any large stems.

Chop your onion.

If necessary, peel any additional vegetables you want to use. Chop them into bite-size pieces.

Pour the curry sauce and coconut milk into a large pot, and heat on med-high until boiling.

Add the greens, onion, and any other veggies.

Let boil 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

In a small, dry non-stick saucepan, toast your cashews for 3-4 minutes, tossing once.

Serve the cashews over the curry over the rice. Yum!

Delicious, healthy pesto veggie soup

Do you remember the terrible WW no-point soup? I'm sure for some of you it's fresh in your memory, was perhaps mentioned to you recently. It's full of no-point vegetables in a beef/tomato broth. That's it. No protein, no bread or pasta. I'm sure there is a small minority of people who actually do really like the soup; maybe it reminds those people of something their grandmother made. I made it when I was on Weight Watchers a few years ago and found it hideous; it left my stomach acidic and growling not long after I ate it. (No wonder--it had no calories!) Yech.

I was thinking about that soup while I made us dinner a few nights ago. I was making a vegetable soup again . . . still with crushed tomatoes and broth (veggie now) as the basis. But this one had about 2/3 cup of whole-wheat cheese tortellini in each serving and a spoonful of pesto to stir into each bowl. I can't tell you the calorie count of it--it certainly would not qualify as a no-point meal. I can tell you the soup was healthy and easy--and delicious enough that we happily ate the leftovers for lunch the next day.

Veggie/Tortellini Soup with Pesto
Makes about 4 servings

a mix of vegetables, chopped into bite-size pieces and separated by how long they normally take to cook (I used a couple of carrots (10 min. to cook), a bunch of Swiss chard (7 min. to cook), two handfuls of frozen broccoli (6 min. to cook), and a yellow squash (3 min. to cook))

1 can of crushed tomatoes (I used Muir Glen fire-roasted tomatoes)

2-4 c. of veggie broth

4 garlic cloves

2-3 c. of frozen or refrigerated cheese tortellini (one pckg.--I used whole-wheat tortellini)

salt and pepper

~2 T. of pesto (we used pesto my husband had made that we froze in an ice-cube tray, but refrigerated or shelved store-bought pesto would work fine)

Dump your can/jar of crushed tomatoes and 2 c. of veggie broth into a large pot, and turn the burner to med-high. Crush the garlic cloves into the pot. Heat to a boil. If you have any vegetables that will take a long time to cook, add them to the pot and let them boil a few minutes. I added my carrots for about four minutes before adding my tortellini. When you are ready to put your tortellini in (mine took about 8 min. to cook--just what the package said), you will need to turn the heat on the burner down so that your soup only simmers; a fast boil would blow apart your pasta before it's cooked. Add tortellini and other veggies according to about how long they will take to cook. Add more veggie broth if you need to in order to keep everything barely covered by soup. You should time it so that everything in your soup will be ready at the same time. (If one veggie stays a little bit crunchy or gets a little bit soggy, it's okay.)

Ladle the soup into bowls; add a bit of salt and pepper. Put an approximately 2-tsp. dollop of pesto into each bowl; let the person eating that bowl of soup stir the pesto in right before consumption.

The pesto adds a rich flavor to the otherwise simple soup.

Enjoy!

Vegetarian Stir-Fry

Easy-peasy stir-fries I made in my childhood (a frequent affair) went something like this: Dump frozen chicken/veggie mix into flat non-stick pan. Add some soy sauce and a little bit of oil. Make some boil-in-bag rice. “Stir-fry” (more like boil) until veggies are cooked and soggy. Dump over watery rice and add lots of (sweet-from-corn-syrup) teriyaki sauce. Despite how unappetizing it sounds, I loved those meals.

But my tastes have evolved, and I’m eating local, fresh, organic (grown-without-pesticides if not officially organic) food whenever possible. Last Saturday, I picked up a mix of vegetables that were tucked in a basket and asked the farmer what he intended purchasers to make with it. “Stir-fry,” he said, and then after thinking a moment, “Or soup. Or salad, actually.” I went with stir-fry, and I added a few other local veggies, so that my stir-fry mix was zucchini, yellow (summer) squash, red onion, broccoli, bok choy (first time cooking bok choy!), carrots, radishes, and broccoli. Chopping it all and separating it into the groups I’d add to the stir-fry took a while, and the whole process of making stir-fry from scratch made my kitchen quite messy, but it was worth it. I served it over red quinoa, an heirloom variety of this high-protein, nutty grain that has been eaten in South America for thousands of years.

It was a great lunch to make today when I had plenty of time to chop. Here’s how I pulled it all together.

Tasty Vegetarian Stir-Fry (simple but for the chopping)

A mix of vegetables

1 block of tofu, preferably frozen, defrosted, and squeezed or pressed for 20 minutes under something heavy (or tempeh)

Several tablespoons of soy sauce or Bragg’s Amino Acids

1 piece of fresh ginger, preferably frozen (Freezing it makes it easier to deal with)

1 tsp. or so of molasses

2 cloves of garlic (more or less, depending on your love of garlic)

some grain for cooking (brown rice? quinoa?) and whatever it needs with it to cook (I often cook mine in veggie broth)

1-3 T of sesame oil (or canola oil in a pinch), depending on how much stir-fry you’re making

Tasty additions or changes, such as adding toasted sesame seeds at the end . . . or exchanging honey for the molasses–whatever you feel inspired to do!

Stir-fry is a meal it is important to prepare your kitchen to make. The French term for this is mis en place–everything in its place. What that means is you go ahead and chop your veggies, pull out your spices, mix your pre-made sauce, etc., before you ever start cooking. In stir-fry, your meal comes together very quickly on the stove, and if you are chopping another vegetable or searching for your ginger while your first veggies are cooking, you’re going to end up with a soggy or burnt meal–not what you are going for. Many chefs use mis en place regularly to make meals cook more smoothly. It does make for more dirty dishes many times, but it also makes for better end results.

Back to the recipe:

Chop your vegetables and protein into fairly uniform, bite-size pieces, and separate them into bunches based loosely on how quickly they will cook. I had onion, radishes and carrots in a bowl; chopped, pressed tofu in a bowl; broccoli and bok choy in a bowl; and zucchini and squash in a bowl–to go into my stir fry in that order.

Peel and grate a 1/2" piece of ginger (or more, if you love ginger.) Mix the soy sauce, ginger, molasses, and garlic in a small bowl or ramekin. (You could also stir-fry the ginger and/or garlic in the stir-fry with the first veggies instead.)

Start the grain of choice cooking. (Of course, if your grain takes 50 minutes to cook and can sit once it’s done, you can start it while you are still chopping your veggies or even beforehand. Mine only took 15 min. to cook, though.)

Put on an apron if you want to avoid getting splattered.

Heat a tall pan–preferably a wok or other slope-sided pan–on medium-high heat. Add your longest-cooking veggies; stir regularly for about 2 minutes. Add your protein and your next veggies. Keep stirring and tossing the veggies. Continue until you have added all your veggies, with 1-2 minute intervals between additions. Add a bit more oil if your veggies start sticking to the bottom.

As soon as you have added your last vegetables, pour in your sauce, and stir well. Cover, and steam for 1-2 minutes. Stir your vegetables again. They may be done at this point; if not, keep stirring for a couple more minutes.

Serve over your grain.

I like this simple sauce in the stir-fry because it lets the vegetables’ flavor shine through while still adding something to them.

Mmmmm deeeeeelicious!*

*Dan recommends serving this meal to any spouse who has had surgery that morning to provide super fortification against any bad things happening post-surgery. The fresh, local veggies provide lots of vitamins, and the tofu, Bragg’s, and quinoa all provide protein.

Dinner for one: Night 1 in my mini-series

Unfortunately, you only get to see one of my blurry test shots from my dinner, as my camera battery died before I got set up for better ones! Oh, well, it'll serve to give a general idea.

I wasn't terribly hungry tonight: I'm still a bit jet-lagged, and I exercised my upper body tonight. (The bands/ball exercises are working; I was sweating! More info on that when I hae the routine down better.) Sometimes hard exercise has the nice effect of making me less hungry afterward.

Of course, eating a salad for one is hardly a unique dinner. And salads can be so horribly boring, especially when you are used to filling a salad with tasteless iceberg lettuce coated in high-fat items like boiled egg, bacon, cheese, fried chicken, buttery croutons, etc., drenched in a high-fat dressing that leaves a shiny pool at the bottom of your salad bowl when you're done. If/when you then try to switch to a salad of lettuce, tomatoes, and vinegar alone (or something similar) to make your salad have nearly no calories, well, yech. All of your textures the same, all of your tastes melding into one . . . that's not fun at all. All of that former stuff can be lovely (even the iceberg lettuce, if it's very fresh and in just the right salad), but of course, a salad full of bunches of fattening food is no healthy meal at all.

I've found that putting more unique ingredients in my salads makes me enjoy a light meal very thoroughly. Each bite is deliciously flavorful; with a variety of textures and tastes, the salad stays interesting to my palate. When one of my college roommates graduated, I made her a cookbook of recipes I'd made that she enjoyed. One thing I included was a whole page of pick-and-choose ingredients for salads, everything from sesame seeds to roasted red peppers to strawberries to cilantro. Nearly anything can be good in a salad--I love roasted vegetables in a salad . . . or hot dressing that wilts the greens a bit . . . or pan-fried tofu. It's all about experimentation.

Tonight's salad consisted of spring greens (I'd rather use local organic ones, but I didn't have any, so I bought a bag at Whole Foods), sliced red onion (very thinly sliced, about 1/8 of the onion--too much red onion in a bite can knock out your taste buds), dried mixed berries (about 1/8 c.), pistachios (1/8 c.), and my easy homemade Meyer lemon dressing. That's it. I had planned to use feta as well, but the feta in our fridge was ancient and had developed green mold. My salad was delicious without it. The onion was crisp and pungent, the pistachios were crunchy and salty, the berries were chewy and sweet, the greens were fresh and peppery, and the dressing was slightly sour but also a bit sweet. The combination was simple and wonderful.

I've written out my dressing before, but here it is again. It's a great dressing for people who are recovering from Irritable Bowel Synrdome or Interstitial Cystitis (or people whose stomachs get easily upset in general) but still want a salad dressing that tastes like salad dressing. I never use vinegar in dressings because of my body's issues, and I couldn't have eaten this dressing without pain at the worst of my IC, but I love it now that I'm in the process of recovering.

My Old Stand-By: Meyer Lemon Dressing (No Vinegar!)

1 Meyer lemon (a Meyer lemon is a cross between a Mandarin orange and a regular lemon)
~3 times as much good olive oil as you got lemon juice (just eye it--it's really okay)
~1 tsp. Mrs. Dash garlic-and-herbs seasoning (or brown or spicy mustard, or your own seasoning mix)
couple of grinds of salt, or 1/2 tsp. Lawry's seasoning salt
1-2 tsp. of honey

I juice the lemon into an old jelly jar that has a lid. Then I pour and sprinkle all the rest into the jar, put the cap on, and shake it well. If I'm thinking ahead, I make it a day in advance, but I've made it and served it right away, too. With the lid screwed on the jar, it stays good in the fridge for a week or longer.

If you have any salad ingredients you love that some other people find strange, please share! Or . . . what's your favorite salad combination in general?

Back on track and a tasty vegetarian meal

Have I mentioned I can totally do this? Because I can. When I keep a positive attitude and don't let a bad day or three throw me off, I'm alright. I know what to do; it's just a matter of keeping it up.

I've been considering making videos of how to make some of the easier meals that I make. Would that help any of you be more committed to cooking meals full of healthy foods? For those of you who don't cook or do cook but are scared to experiment, what would help you be more comfortable and adventurous? You'd get to watch me lose weight in the course of videos. . . . That could be interesting for me, anyway! One of my friends mentioned this weekend she panics, basically, when she sees words she does not know in a recipe and just does not use that recipe. I wish everyone could enjoy cooking like I usually do--it can be such a centering pleasure--and I want to help people with that however I can.

I just finished pumping up my ball, so I'm going to do some exercises this morning with that and my resistance bands. I should stop typing for a minute and go take some meds for cramps. . . . Okay, let's hope I feel better now in a few minutes.

After I try out my various exercises with the ball and resistance bands, I'll post what I'm doing since some of you asked about that.

Oh, interestingly, I have noticed in the past couple of days that I am able to stretch a lot further than when I started stretching before running six weeks ago. (Can you believe it's been six weeks now? That's crazy!)

Another bonus is that I am developing crazy ab muscles! I keep making my husband feel them. (He always obliges me.) They are still under a layer of fat for the most part, but it's nice to feel how different I am becoming. Lifting your legs to run is a great core work-out, I've learned.

I found a picture of me from the fall that demonstrates how I looked at my recent highest weight. It's a physical picture, not a digital one, but I'm going to scan it soon to keep a record, I think. I don't think I still have any photos of me at my truly highest weight, which was about 40 pounds higher than I am now. (40 pounds!)

As I stayed home from work yesterday, I had plenty of time to make dinner last night. I made a much more elaborate meal than I would usually consider making on weeknights. I set stuff up to marinate, went for my run, came home and bathed, and finished the meal.

This is what I made (nearly every ingredient was organic, and the produce was local):

I peeled, chopped, and blanched (boiled and then plunged into ice-cold water) a couple of golden beets for about 8 minutes, adding a couple of peeled, chopped turnips the last four minutes.

I peeled and chopped several carrots. I tossed the carrots and the cooled-off beet/turnip mixture into a big plastic bag. I added some herbes de provence, garlic-and-herbs Mrs. Dash, a tablespoon or so of olive oil, and a couple of grinds of salt and pepper. I sealed the bag and spread the marinade around by lightly pressing together and shaking the contents of the bag. i stuck it in the fridge to marinate.

I chopped up a block of tempeh and put it in a smaller plastic bag. Then I stirred together some molasses, Bragg's amino acids (a soy sauce substitute), a bit of vegetarian Worcestershire sauce, some grated peel of a tangelo, and the juice of the tangelo. I poured that mixture into the tempeh bag and squished it all together. I stuck it in the fridge to marinate.

I sliced the ends off of fennel (I should have cut off a bit more and left just the bulbs--this was my first time cooking fennel, which has a mild licorice-like taste, delicious though I don't like licorice), doused it in a bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper, and stuck it in another plastic bag in the fridge.

I put some rainbow chard in a big bowl of water to soak some of the dirt off.

I went for my run--Day 2 of Week 5 (I'm repeating Week 5's days for a while). It was a really hard day for running. But running 8 minutes at a time rocks to be able to do!

When I got home, I preheated the oven to 400 degrees. Then I took a quick bath.

While I was in the bath, my husband chopped a yellow onion for me and put it in a bit of olive oil on low heat in a non-stick pan.

I sprayed two cookie sheets with non-stick cooking spray. I dumped the turnip/beet/carrot mix on one and put the fennel bulbs on the other. I put the turnip mix in the oven for about 40 minutes; ten minutes later, I added the fennel.

I stirred and covered the onions. Then I rinsed the chard off and tore it into bite-size pieces, dropping it into a bowl as I went.

I added about a tablespoon of brown sugar to the onions and stirred that in. The onions were caramelizing at this point.

With ten minutes before the veggies were going to be done roasting, I put water on to boil in a non-stick pan to make enough grits for two people.

When the water was boiling, I added a dash of salt and the grits to it. I stirred the grits in well.

I threw the chard into the onion mix, turned the heat up to medium, stirred the onions and chard together, and put a lid on that pan.

I heated another eye on the stove to med-high heat and, when it was hot, tossed in the tempeh, which cooked quickly.

I stirred the grits, grated a bit of sharp cheese, and added the cheese and a teaspoon of butter to the grits. I added a dash of my ever-present Lawry's seasoning salt (ooh, a recipe to make your own here) and a few grinds of pepper. (Grits--a Southern US staple which are a whole-grain version of corn meal, basically--are ready to eat in 5-7 minutes, depending on how thick you want them.)

I pulled the roasted veggies out of the oven to finish the prep.

To serve, I put the grits in two bowls, topped them with the roasted vegetables, put the chard/onion mix on that, and topped that with the tempeh.

Then I drizzled a very small amount of truffle oil around the edges of the bowls. I have eaten truffle oil in restaurants but never cooked with it before. It is amazingly rich and wonderful. If you are trying to be careful of your fat consumption, I encourage you to use a small amount of truffle oil in savory foods that you want to be rich. It made a huge difference in the meal.

The end result was rather pretty.


I loved the grits, roasted veggies, fennel, and chard/onion mix; the grits were rich and creamy, the roasted veggies were earthy and slightly bitter, and the chard/onion mix was earthy but sweet from the caramelized onions. I thought the tempeh was a little too sweet. I also had given myself way too much food in my bowl, so I only ate about half of it. My husband really liked it all, including the tempeh; he ate part of what I had left in my bowl.

This recipe used a good bit of oil but did not have much fat otherwise, and nearly all of the ingredients were healthy, so I consider the meal a success. It was beautiful and delicious--just what you want from a healthy meal.

Tasty, light salad

This weekend I was having one of my times of anxiety that come up occasionally as I eat healthfully without trying to count anything in the process. I was back to the Can I really actually do this? train of thought for a couple of days there. I went a bit overboard last week/over the weekend with what I ate, because we ate out a lot. It's okay to eat out and choose whatever you feel like occasionally--to eat what sounds tasty to you without any regard for how it will affect your healthfulness. But if you want to lose weight, it's not okay to do that three or four nights in a week!

But that was a different week, and I'm back in the zone this week with a variety of tasty, healthy meals planned.

I had had a rather rich, high-calorie lunch today, and I knew I was going to make a late dinner because I was going to do my second day of Week 3 on C25k, and I need to wait at least three hours after eating anything for me to do the running parts. I felt very worn out today, as it's the first day of my period. I spent the morning at work with cramps; by the afternoon, I was just tired. My husband (bless his heart--he's pretty clueless about grocery shopping) went to the store for me to buy our weekly groceries, and I geared up to do my C25k outing even though I was tired. I knew if I could go out and do it today, it was making a statement about me progressing towards a goal even when it's not easy. And I did it! I even realized I could have (if I'd had to) run a bit farther than I did. As it is, I'm up to over 1/4 mi on my 3-minute runs. To some of you, I'm sure that sounds like nothing, but for me, it's huge! Huge and not even horrendously hard.

In any case, I decided to make us a light dinner of a salad. If you're eating dinner at 8:30 at night and tend to go to bed around 10 p.m., you don't need a heavy meal. Here's what I made.


First, I made our dressing so that the flavors had time to meld a bit. As I believe I've mentioned on here, I'm recovering from a really bad case of interstitial cystitis, and while I have healed a good bit, I am still not able to eat normal vinaigrettes and may never be. Fortunately, I've actually discovered that you can make great dressings with no vinegar, so if you are someone who has a stomach or bladder or other body part that doesn't agree with highly acidic foods, you may want to try some of my dressings. They are acidic, but much more mildly so than normal dressings (especially 'light' dressings, which usually means they've cut the amount of oil and jacked up the acid). I couldn't have eaten even this dressing six months ago without a lot of pain, but I am happy to say I can now.

So--the dressing: we have a thyme plant in our tiny little interior herb garden (no sense in paying lots of money for small amounts of herbs that are easy to grow indoors), so I pulled off maybe a teaspoon of leaves, washed them, and sauteed them for about a minute with a few tablespoons of olive and canola oil. Then I turned off the burner and let that sit for a while to let the thyme release its flavor into the oil. I took a break to wash the salad leaves and prepare the other salad parts. Then I combined a handful of raspberries, 1 heaping tsp. of dijon mustard (with seeds in it), 1 tsp. honey, and the thyme-y oil in the blender. I threw in a little bit of red grapefruit juice fresh from the grapefruit I was tearing up. I blended it all together until the ingredients were well-mixed and foamy. My husband commented that the color reminded him of a milkshake or smoothy, but the taste, as he agreed with an "Mmmmm," was all dressing. When I make it again, I'll add just a dash of salt to the mix. I poured that into an old, washed-out jar I'd saved; I keep dressing in the fridge, with a lid on it, for up to a week after I make it.

I pulled sections out of a grapefruit we'd gotten from our CSA. I toasted walnut pieces in a dry pan with a small bit of brown sugar tossed in to stick to the nuts right at the end. I tossed together two types of lettuce from our CSA with the grapefruit, the toasted walnuts, the raspberries I hadn't used in the dressing, and a bit of feta cheese.

I put the dressing on it at the end and tossed it together as I served it into our individual bowls. We had exactly two servings of it (go me), though my husband loved it so much he said he would have liked another helping. The sweet/salty/tangy combination of flavors was really wonderful together.

Autumn Harvest Stew (a tasty, easy vegan meal)

Autumn Harvest Stew (or Winter Harvest Stew these days)

This slow-cooker/crockpot recipe was adapted from a Publix Greenwise recipe from last fall. I added a couple of bitter vegetables because using only sweet ones made a very sweet meal the same day, and it made leftovers that were nearly unbearably sweet. Depending on how mild or spiced you like your meals, you may want to slighty decrease or increase the spices. There's no heat in these spices, though--I don't mean to imply that there is.

2 chopped sweet potatoes
2 medium chopped, peeled parsnips
2 medium chopped, peeled carrots
2 small chopped, peeled apples
1 chopped, peeled turnip
1 chopped, peeled rutabaga
1 chopped onion
2 pckgs. regular seitan (28 oz.? or so--it's strange how similar to meat this stuff can seem; just look at the photo!)
1 tsp. crushed, dried thyme
1 1/2 tsp. dried rosemary
1 tsp. salt
few grinds of salt
1 1/2-2 c. veggie broth
1 c. organic apple juice

In a 3.5-4 q. slow cooker place your veggies and seitan. Sprinkle with the seasonings. (You can also use ~three times as much fresh seasonings, tie them together with twine, and tuck them in the food. That's how I originally made this dish.)

Pour broth and apple juice over all.

Cover and cook on low heat for 7-8 hours or on high heat for 3.5-4 hours. (I've always used low heat.)

I serve the stew over couscous. As you can see in the photo, I like to serve it with sauteed, tender-crisp garlicky green beans as a foil to the sweetness of the stew.

I Did it, Vol. III, and a tasty lunch

Ladies (and the occasional gentleman), I did it, I did it! I did my third run/walk of Week 1 of C25k--AND it didn't even get difficult to do until I got to the sixth section of my run. I'm so excited! Week 2, here I come.

I told my husband's sister--who has recently worked up to running a 10k--and she asked me what 5k I'm going to do. I said, I guess I should pick one that's right after the last week of my training! So I'll be checking up on that now.

I got home from my run/walk psyched to eat a healthy lunch, too, so I ate some leftover curry tofu salad.

After having a lovely curried chicken salad at West Egg (we were there so that I could sample their tasty–but not perfect–cupcakes) last weekend, I decided that I would try to make a curried tofu salad at home this past week.

I froze a block of extra-firm tofu and then thawed it in the microwave. That process firms up tofu for some reason. Then I pressed the tofu with our giant bamboo cutting board for a while to get out more of the moisture.

I sliced purple organic grapes in half; chopped two very large, not very strong green onions (from our CSA–the biggest green onions I’ve ever seen); toasted some walnut pieces; and tossed all of that together with lots of curry powder, some Greek yogurt, a little Lawry’s seasoning salt, a few grinds of pepper, a tiny bit of sugar, and a small amount of light mayonnaise.

I sliced up the tofu and stirred it in. Then I realized I needed lots more yogurt and curry powder, so I tossed more in . . . twice.

After leaving the salad in the fridge for an hour or so, I stuffed some pitas (slightly warmed in the microwave to prevent breakage) with some CSA butter lettuce, sliced tomatoes, and the tofu salad.

In the end, I really liked the flavors, especially today after they’d melded a bit. But I don’t love the consistency of the tofu I used . . . not sure if I should have cooked it, shouldn’t have frozen it, or what.

We also ate oranges that came in our CSA order; our CSA is low on their late-winter produce and is waiting for their spring produce to be ready, so they had to supplement with some organic produce from Florida. The juice oranges we got were absolutely incredible.

There's my mp3 player in the picture after I finished my work-out.

Feel free to share any suggestions for alterations to the salad.

Lazy Sunday Dinner: Soyloaf and veggies

Guess I just wanted comfort food--last week was a very stressful one for me. I called my mother when I was planning meals Saturday and asked her how she makes her meatloaf. I love the veggieloaf generator over at The Vegan Lunchbox and intend to try one of the combinations eventually. But my mother’s meatloaf isn’t like most people’s meatloaf, because it’s mostly meat and isn’t tomato-y or mushy. I wanted to try to make it vegetarian–a soyloaf. She happily obliged me with the simple recipe.

To round out the Sunday evening meal, I slow-roasted organic tomatoes (again, yes–I’m in love with them, poor tomato-averse husband); cooked vegetarian CSA collard greens using the recipe I have posted previously; and toasted a couple of Hawaiian rolls. (The rolls are outside our usual eating habits, but I went to Kroger–a very rare thing for me–with a friend and was entranced by the idea of slightly sweet rolls . . . and they sold a pack that only had 4 rolls in it, so I got it.)

I also wanted to cook carrots to go with dinner . . . sweet carrots, to complement the salty soyloaf and slightly bitter greens. My husband loves carrots, too, so they were a nice balance to the tomatoes he would eat but wouldn’t like. For whatever reason, though, I’m not a giant carrot fan, so I wasn’t terribly excited about making them. For a change in consistency and to perk up the idea of carrots in my mind, I decided to try using our nifty new-ish immersion blender to whip the carrots in their pot. It was a very successful experiment.

And speaking of experiments, I’m now testing whether I can manage to add red wine back to my diet without pain. I did have a few twinges of pain after the meal, so perhaps the tomatoes and wine were too much acid together. But it was nice to have a small amount of wine with dinner. (We had tried a wine from Four Vines called Anarchy and loved it, so we decided to try a couple of other types from them. The Zinfandel was good–not great like the Anarchy, but good.)

My husband is trying out new photography equipment, so this picture’s a bit stark. (See the photographer’s umbrella reflected in the glass of wine?)

Hearty Onion Soyloaf

I must admit I cringed when I saw the ingredients in the Lipton onion soup mix I used in this recipe. Partially hydrogenated fat? MSG? Yuck. I’m hoping to find a better onion soup mix made entirely from natural ingredients when I retry this recipe. But I did have very pleasant childhood memories from the scent of the soyloaf as I mixed and baked it.

~2 lbs. ground soy (similar to ground beef–I used two tubes of sausage-style soy, and they were a little too pork tasting–with thyme, I think?–and very salty. The end result was good and will be great in sandwiches, but I’ll try a different variety next time)

Note: This soyloaf is pretty similar in texture to hamburgers. It's firm. It would probably work well to make into patties for burgers, actually. It's not in the least mushy, so if a soft loaf is what you're going for, this one isn't it.

one egg (two eggs–or add some milk or soymilk or whatever–if the consistency seems too dry when you mix it all together)

1/8-1/4 c. Italian bread crumbs (amount depending on desired consistency)

one packet of onion soup mix

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix all the ingredients together in a big bowl. The easiest way to mix it is to use your (clean!) hands.

Shape the mixture into a loaf, and spray a baking dish with a little non-stick spray. (This may not be necessary, but I was worried my loaf would stick to my dish.) Put the loaf in the dish.

Bake 40-55 minutes–until your loaf is firm and turning brown on the outside.

“Wow, these are carrots?” Carrots

Put a large pot of water on to boil. Toss a bit of small bit of salt in it.

Unless you have carrots fresh from the earth, peel your carrots. I used three bunches of organic (much smaller than ‘conventional’) carrots in two shades of orange. I think parsnips would make a lovely addition, though I don’t think they’d need to boil quite as long.

Cut your carrots into ~1″ sections. When your water is boiling, add the carrots to it. Partially cover your pot. Boil your carrots for ~20 minutes.

When the carrots are done, turn off the eye, drain the carrots in a collander, and return them to the pot while they are still steaming hot.

I had about three servings of carrots. I added 2 tsp. butter, 2 tsp. heavy cream, three dashes of ginger, two dashes of nutmeg, a dash of salt, and about 2 tsp. of dark brown sugar (the organic kind, which is redolent of molasses). I used my immersion blender to mash most–but not all–of the carrots into a puree with the flavorings. If you don’t have an immersion blender, get one. I’m just kidding, though really, I do love ours and am very glad we got one. If you don’t have an immersion blender, you could try using your regular blender (melt the butter if you do that), your food processor, or (for a chunkier consistency) your potato masher. My husband and I both loved these carrots. They were flavorful but not overpowering.

Oh, and the rolls didn’t seem nearly as exciting once I had a flavorful meal put together. Good lesson to learn.

A Dinner-Worthy Salad

Ha. If only my former-chef ex-fiance could see me now. I guess he could, actually; I know he’s visited my other blog before. (Ahh, the power of statcounter.)

But that’s not really my point. My point is that my cooking has come a lonnng way since he and I were together. Then, I was the occasional baker, and he was the experimental cook. I even once found a tape of him interviewing someone for the local newspaper–for a column he briefly wrote–and telling her that I couldn’t really cook but that I was a great baker.

Of course, I’m still not skilled like he was, practically speaking. I don’t chop my vegetables efficiently and perfectly or anything like that. But I do have good kitchen utensils (I told him he couldn’t take the cats; I should have added he couldn’t take the expensive knives I paid for), and I’m willing and ready to experiment. I’m a lot more comfortable trying things out now than I used to be.

A few nights ago, I was planning on us having a big salad and some refrigerated soup from Whole Foods. It turned out the soup was sour–the 5th (FIFTH!) thing I’ve gotten from Whole Foods that’s turned out to be bad/rotten/moldy in the last couple of months. (Whole Foods, I am always recommending you guys, but I have a bone to pick with you. Seriously. Update: I actually just sent Whole Foods an email to complain.) So our salad had to get more elaborate–with some protein thrown in–to accommodate being the only food in the meal.

I chopped and threw together a mix of winter vegetables–a turnip, a rutabaga, some sweet potatoes, an onion–with a couple of peeled and chopped apples. I tossed those with a little high-quality fruity-tasting olive oil, some herbes de provence, and a smidge of salt. I roasted that mix at 400 for about 40 minutes, tossing them twice during cooking. It wouldn’t have hurt some of the veggies to roast a little longer.

I tore up some butter lettuce from our weekly CSA load and tossed it with my usual-these-days lemon salad dressing: shaken together well in a lidded jar–the juice of one Meyer lemon; three times as much olive oil as lemon juice; Mrs. Dash garlic-and-herbs seasoning; a bit of Lawry’s seasoning salt; and a teaspoon or so of honey.

I toasted a handful of walnut pieces in a dry pan on medium heat for 3-4 minutes, tossing them once. I set them aside.

Then I sliced a small log of goat cheese into ~1/2″ rounds. I beat an egg in a small bowl, and I poured some Italian-seasoned bread crumbs in another bowl. I covered a plate with waxed paper. I dipped the goat cheese slices in the egg wash and then in the bread crumbs to thoroughly coat them. I put the breaded goat cheese slices on the covered plate and put them in the refrigerator for 15 minutes. Then I heated up a small amount of olive oil on medium heat using the same pan I’d used for the walnuts, and I pan-fried the goat cheese for about 30-45 seconds on each side. I tossed the goat cheese on the salad, and we sat down to eat!

The salad was fantastic. The winter vegetables were slightly bitter and very aromatic from the herbes de provence. The apple bits provided small notes of sweetness. The goat cheese was easy to slice into warm gooey pieces, and the savory flavor of the cheese cut the bitterness of the vegetables. The slightly sweet, slightly sour flavor of the salad and dressing, and the saltiness of the toasted walnuts, were a nice foil to the rest. Delicious–and healthy.

My attempt at making Indian food

My husband loves lentils. I mean, he freaking loves lentils. You can’t fault a boy for loving something healthy, right? But the thing is, I don’t really love lentils. They’re okay–I’ll eat them–but I don’t get find it easy to get excited about lentils. That changed (at least for one recipe) when we were eating at an Indian/Bangladeshi restaurant near our apartment a few weeks ago. I tasted my husband’s light, delicious, almost fluffy bright yellow dal and said, “Ooh, what’s in that?” Lentils.

I took another bite and thought about the ingredients in it while I ate the bite. Then I needed another bite–you know, for verification. “The difference is that it’s pureed,” I pronounced, not at all stating the obvious. Somehow pureeing the lentils moved them from mealy to smooth and tasty.

Excited about unexpectedly having Friday off (long story), I got ambitious about our cooking this weekend. Lately I’ve been testing out fusing various cuisines together–combining, from an earlier example, things like peanut-sauced tofu and a Southern vegetable plate. And it works, mostly, to do some experimentation like that. Last night I wanted to try to make the dal and was trying to figure out what to serve with it. I wanted to see if I have healed enough to eat yogurt (formerly too acidic, possibly still too acidic unfortunately), so I decided to make raita (an Indian condiment usually combining yogurt, mint, and cucumber) to go with the dal. Whatever vegetables I served had to be strong enough to complement the rich flavor of the dal. So I decided to make some vegetable fritters . . . and then I added some roasted tomatoes to the list after thinking about the nearly orgasmic experience I had eating them at Watershed. (I was dying to include some chutney, but the highly acidic nature of vinegar-loaded chutney would probably still send me into spasms after a very short period of time.)

Here’s the end result. The raita and vegetable fritters were nothing to write home about. I still can’t figure out how my fritters–which had zucchini, carrots, onion, and green onion in them, plus twice as much of every spice as I initially thought I should put–came out as bland as they did, but, well, they did. They were also very heavy/dense, which I think was because I used the same mix of mostly whole-wheat flour with a little white flour that I use for everything. “They’re good–they’re just not great,” my husband said generously. I didn’t finish mine.

The raita was also just boring: not sour enough, not blended enough.

The dal and the roasted tomatoes, though–they really hit the spot. (My husband, whose one food hang-up remains tomatoes, thought the roasted ones were only okay. I thought they were incredible–rich like tomato sauce, but sturdy enough to eat alone. YUM.) And both the dal and tomatoes were healthy and easy to make, though the tomatoes were in the oven for-evuh.

I blended recipes while making both of them, but here’s a basic recap of what I did:

Easy Slow-Roasted Tomatoes

per person:

1 large red tomato (even a hothouse tomato in winter works)

1/2 tsp. crushed fresh garlic

1/2 tsp. olive oil

1/2 tsp. sugar

sea salt and pepper

cooking spray

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees (or 250 if you want to cut the time down a couple of hours).

Core your tomato. Halve the tomato (top and bottom half) and scrape out some of the seeds, leaving as much pulp as you can. Sprinkle crushed garlic, oil, and sugar over tomato. Grind salt and pepper over it.

Spray non-stick spray on a cookie sheet or jelly roll. Place the tomato pieces, cut side up, on the pan. Roast for 6-8 hours, until the tomatoes have started to blacken around the edges.

Delicious. Eat by itself, chop or blend it up for a pasta sauce, or serve it with toasted bread.

(I think I might get on a roasting kick after this experience.)

Pureed Lentil Dal

~3 servings (or 1 regular serving and 1 double serving if you’re married to my husband)

1 c. red lentils

1 T. butter

2 cloves garlic

1 tsp. red pepper flakes

3/4 tsp. (or so) powdered ginger

3 c. vegetable broth

1 1/2 T curry powder (or less depending on your powder)

salt and pepper

Dunk your lentils in a couple of inches of water, picking off any non-lentil bits that may pop up from the lentil pile.

Drain the lentils well.

Heat the butter in a skillet on med-high. Add garlic, red pepper flakes, and ginger, and stir around for a minute. Add the drained lentils and stir together. Add the vegetable broth and curry powder; heat to a boil, then cover and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook for 20 minutes or until lentils are very soft. Use an immersion blender in the pot to puree and fluff your lentils. (Alternately, pour the lentil mixture into the blender and do it there.) Add salt and pepper to taste.

This makes a flavorful but mild dal. My husband has asked me if I’ll make him a bit pot of this to eat all week for lunch. That’s how much he liked it.

Easy, tasty, pretty vegetarian meal

Ohh, I love it when a plan comes together and experimentation pays off. That was precisely what did not happen when our friends joined us for our impromptu dinner last night. Tonight, however, ahhh, it all came together so well.

Our meal consisted of roasted new potatoes topped with steamed asparagus topped with Parmesan cheese topped with a fried egg. Delicious. Here’s how I made it happen:

I chopped 5 Yukon new potatoes into bite-size pieces and put them in a quart-size baggie. I tossed in a couple of tablespoons of pesto, but I would suggest instead that you toss in chopped garlic, Italian herbs, and olive oil . . . or some garlic & herbs Mrs. Dash, salt, and olive oil. I zipped the bag shut and mixed it all together; then I let it sit in the fridge for a couple of hours. (It would probably be fine to use within 15 minutes.)

I put the potatoes in to roast at 400 degrees F for about 25 minutes, taking them out to flip them half-way through the cooking time.

In the meantime, I heated a pot of water with a steamer basket and a lid until the water boiled.

I grated about three tablespoons of high-quality Parmesan cheese and set that aside.

When the potatoes were nearly done, I steamed the asparagus until they were tender-crisp: very thin asparagus needs about 4 minutes; these thicker ones needed about 7.

While the asparagus was steaming, I heated a non-stick pan to medium heat. When it was good and hot, I added a tablespoon of butter. As soon as the butter had melted, I cracked a line into two eggs on the ridge of a bowl and gently cracked the eggs open a half inch from the hot surface of the pan. Then I put in another tablespoon of butter to melt next to the cooking eggs (don’t worry–it didn’t all cook into the eggs). Over the next 2-3 minutes, I occasionally spooned up the pooling hot butter and basted the egg yolk with it. My goal was to have an egg yolk that wasn’t raw but would still turn into a runny, flavorful sauce when we cut into it to eat.

The asparagus and eggs were done about the same time, so I took the potatoes out of the oven; put the asparagus on top of it; sprinkled Parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper on top; added more pepper and a tiny bit of salt to the eggs; and then used a spatula to scoop one egg on top of each plate. (There was a lot of butter left in the pan.)

Voila . . . an easy, delicious meal. But I wasn’t done yet.

We bought a round of Sweet Grass Dairy cheese a couple of weeks ago. We hadn’t used it yet because I was trying to do something a little special with it and needed time to think what to do. Tonight I mixed together about 1 teaspoon of melted organic butter, 3 tablespoons of (real!) maple syrup, 1 tablespoon of turbinado sugar, 1 tablespoon of flour, and 3 tablespoons of organic pecan pieces. I sliced the top rind off of the cheese and spread that mixture on top. I put the cheese with topping in the fridge for about half an hour.

After dinner, I put the cheese in a 400 degree F oven for about 7 minutes, which solidified the top slightly and made the cheese start to melt. Meanwhile I chopped up an apple and a pear to go with it.

Yum–easy dessert as well. I had to stop us from eating all of it with a reminder to my husband that he could eat the rest for breakfast!

This meal had a lot of great elements to it, but with dessert, it was a bit high in saturated fat. It's the kind of meal you can eat once a week but certainly not anywhere close to daily!

Sudden company for dinner

My husband normally has a photography class on Monday nights, but they're taking a break this week. I wanted to celebrate a little extra time with him by making a meal that's more time-consuming than my usual weeknight meals. That's actually pretty funny, since the class ends next week, but oh well!

I also wanted to get in a good, long walk today, as I missed one Sunday. This morning, I called one of my friends who moved to town this week, and she agreed to walk around the park with me while pushing her baby in a stroller.

Work ran late--I had one of those days where nothing goes quite right--and I got home a bit late. That meant the sun was beginning to make its descent when I arrived home. I walked up the road to meet my friend, and she, too, was running behind. When she was ready to go, her 15-month-old child was all bundled up, with a blanket doubled over him to boot. It was a cold afternoon with a brisk, chilling wind. We headed to the park, where I took over pushing the stroller.

We didn't take as long a walk as I normally would; my friend--who's never lost her baby weight, much to her chagrin--was quickly out of breath, and I wasn't sure how long we could stay out without the cold getting to the baby. But pushing his stroller was enough to push me into a light sweat, as he weighs 30 pounds and a good bit of our walk was uphill. I was pleasantly surprised to find that while my breathing grew more labored, I have been walking enough to be far less winded than I would have been a month ago.

We headed back to my apartment, where my husband watched the baby while I cooked dinner and my friend searched for childcare with our internet connection.

I chopped into bite-size pieces a turnip, two rutabagas, three fingerling sweet potatoes, and an apple. I tossed them all together with a bit of olive oil, some salt, a teaspoon of sugar, and a good bit of dried rosemary, and I spread them on a pan I had sprayed with cooking spray. I roasted them at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes. They were very tasty; the slightly bitter taste of the turnip and rutabagas mixed well with the sweetness of the sweet potatoes and apple. The rosemary tied the flavors together.

My friend's husband arrived at our house as well, off at last from a late day at his job.

I tried making a recipe for brussel sprouts with a lemon/milk sauce. They were okay but not great; with some tinkering and some nuts, I might really like the recipe, but . . . yeah.

About this time, after asking me if it was okay, my husband asked the couple if they'd like to stay for dinner. I wasn't sure we had quite enough food to go around, so I mentally started figuring out what we could serve for dessert to round out the meal.

Then I made a dish of chickpeas with paprika; we had some previously that were roasted with paprika, but I couldn't remember at first how I'd cooked them before, so I ended up doing them on the stove-top. They weren't nearly as good as roasting them had been.

So I was serving my friends and my husband roasted veggies that would be good but very simple, chickpeas I didn't much care for, and brussel sprouts that were only okay. Dessert loomed larger in my mind as a way to make up for the rest of the meal.

We had, yesterday, thawed some eggnog quick bread that had been in our freezer since Christmas, so I decided to make a sauce to go with that. I tossed some frozen organic raspberries, frozen organic blueberries, rum, sugar, a tablespoon of butter, and a little raspberry syrup in a pot together. I let it defrost and then simmer on low heat while we ate dinner. Then I tossed in some arrowroot powder to thicken it and served it over slices of the quick bread. Mmm delicious--finally a part of the meal I was proud to present. "That looks so pretty I don't even want to eat it," my friend commented. That's what I'm going for when I cook for company.

And now for a tasty meal with a terrible photo ;)

To be stored in our kitchen at work this week, I bought two kinds of organic salad greens, smoked almonds, dried berries, and feta cheese mixed with flecks of sundried tomatoes and basil. The idea is for me to make a side salad each day that has just a bit of extra goodies in it.

The trick was to come to work today and not eat all of that together for lunch on my first day! That would be a very high-calorie meal.

I also brought several frozen entrees. My leftovers from my home freezer are a bit low at the moment, so I bought some from the store. (I do recycle the packaging . . . and I consider $3-4 or a frozen entree that keeps me from spending $10 at a restaurant to be a bargain!)

Today for lunch, I heated up some spinach lasagna (no tomato sauce) from Seeds of Change. It was delicious--the pasta was, I'm thankful to say, still al dente after microwaving--and it was richly flavored. One of my coworkers was microwaving a Lean Cuisine meat-and-tomato lasagna as I was getting my lunch ready, and we both noted (she first) that my lasagna looked a lot more appealing than hers. My lasagna had 30 more calories and 3 more fat grams than the Lean Cuisine variety, so it was a reasonable choice in that way.

To go with my lasagna, I took out my herb salad mix and tossed it with two teaspoons of feta, a tablespoon or so of toasted walnuts (I toasted them on the stove for three minutes), and about two teaspoons of the homemade lemon dressing I've mentioned that I use previously.

It was quite a delicious meal. Unfortunately, my cell phone camera does no justice for tasty meals . . . but such is life.

The strangest, most beautiful salad I've ever made (and the rest of dinner)

My husband ate seconds--he loved the salad. My mind was spazzing a bit, but the flavors were good together. Here's what we had:

Big Dinner Salad

mixed greens
toasted pistachios
avocado
feta
nasturtiums
violets

Yes, nasturtiums and violents: after weeks of intense curiosity while looking at the edible flowers at the Saturday farmer's market, I gave in and bought some to include in a salad. The flowers tasted like flowers, but that really wasn't a bad thing, just different. And, as I said, my husband gobbled it up.

For a dressing (makes enough for maybe 6 servings or for several nights, if refrigerated), we had this: the juice of a lemon mixed with 1 T lavender sugar, 1 tsp. salt, and three times as much walnut oil as lemon juice.

It was beautiful.


For our 'main' course (though really, the nasturtium salad stole the show), we had an easy lentil-tofu stew over three kinds of mixed brown rice. It was tasty as well--my lentil-loving husband was in heaven this meal. The lentil-tofu stew was very hearty . . . comfort food, you might say.

And hey, I actually managed to post a meal with no winter squash in it!

Another incidentally vegan soup for dinner

I was looking for a way to use butternut squash and coconut milk together, after we had them as such a fabulous combination in a curry at a dinner party recently. I realize that I am using winter squash so often in my recipes that readers may be wondering whether I am secretly working for the butternut ad council, but here's the thing: butternut and other winter squash tastes fabulous--rich and slightly sweet; it's low in calories; and it's local to Georgia in the winter. My husband and I are trying to eat locally sourced, organic foods when possible, and winter squash is one of the times it's very possible right now!

But back to my search a few days ago: I came across this recipe and, given its high ratings, I decided to give it a go with a few changes.



Red Lentil Thai-ish Soup

1 tablespoon peanut oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 tsp. dried ginger
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 pinch ground fenugreek seeds (I'd never heard of these, but there they were in the spice aisle!)
1 cup dry red lentils
1 cup butternut squash - peeled, seeded, and cubed (I used left-over, pre-cooked African squash--it's much easier to cube butternut squash after it's cooked)
1/3 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro
3 c. vegetable broth
1 (14 ounce) can light coconut milk
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 teaspoons curry powder
1 pinch cayenne pepper
1 pinch ground nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat, and cook the onion, ginger, garlic, and fenugreek 5 min., or until onion is tender.

Mix the lentils, squash, and cilantro into the pot. Stir in the broth, coconut milk, and tomato paste. Season with curry powder, cayenne pepper, nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer 30 minutes, or until lentils and squash are tender.

The verdict: my husband, who loves lentil soup, was very taken with this dish; he wants me to make it again. It was sorta like a Thai version of lentil soup. My best friend (who was over so that she and I could go for a walk) and I are not huge lentil soup fans; we thought the dish was good but not great. The consistency was more like a stew than a soup. It was definitely a hearty vegetarian dish. At around 300 calories and 15g of fat per serving, it's a very reasonable meal for people being careful of such things, so if you dig lentil soup, check it out.

To serve with it, I toasted 1 whole piece of whole-wheat pita bread with two teaspoons of butter patted on it. The butter melted and left the pita tasting more like Indian flatbread than pita bread; it was great. We cut the pita into thirds to share.

Getting back in the zone

As I posted earlier, I am up (or should I say down?) to a 7-pound loss for the month of January, which is wonderful. For the first time in my life, I am using a sense of nurturing myself to be very conscientious about the number of fruits and vegetables I put into my body; the amount of dessert, fats, meat, and added sugar I eat; and the level of exercise that I undertake. I have lost 7 pounds without once calculating my daily calories, fat grams, carbs, or anything else. Instead, I have tried to be conscientious about what I put into my mouth when I actually am hungry; what might lead me to think I'm hungry when I'm not; and what, other than food, might make me feel better when I am stressed out. Instead of being angry or frustrated with myself when I have a craving, I try to utilize the sympathetic but logical part of me--a part of me that is outside of my cravings that can be sympathetic to the confusion causing the craving without giving in to the craving. I am waking up with more energy in the mornings. I am, for once, looking forward to my daily walks and the stress relief they provide. I'm crying less often. (I'm not depressed, but I am emotional, so I cry pretty often.) I'm feeling generally peppier during the day. Overall, I am feeling like I am taking care of myself instead of feeling like I am punishing myself like I usually feel when I am dieting. Instead of feeling like I am someone who is out of control and needs strict controls on her life when it comes to food, I am trusting myself as if I am someone who has good intentions and capabilities when it comes to her own body--and then I am living out that trust.

So what happened this weekend? Well, things are going really well, so I started to feel anxious. Creeping into my mind were thoughts and emotions that were not this clearly formed, but went something like this: "Seven pounds is a lot for you to have lost--maybe you need to start counting calories to keep it off?" "You don't actually know what you're doing! You're going to regain it all and then some!" "What if you really can't trust yourself without some stricter guidelines?" "What if, this week, you've GAINED weight instead of losing it?" "Something's wrong, because this isn't as hard as it should be!"

I spent the weekend feeling this somewhat vague doubt of myself. I told myself that it was normal to feel this way, because I'm trying something new and it's working, and my brain doesn't know how to handle dieting that works without punishing me. Part of my brain is still catching up. I tried to be sympathetic to the part of me that is anxious, and to remind myself that after this many years of reading about diets and nutrition, being an intelligent person, I certainly know how to eat and how not to eat.

I put myself on auto-pilot, thinking these thoughts and feeling these emotions but trying to continue my new habits. Due to circumstances partly outside my control, we ate at restaurants three times this weekend, and while I made better choices than I could have (low-fat buffalo instead of beef), I didn't make the best choices I could have, calorie-wise (vegetable soup). I also walked the bottoms of my feet off, though. I was wondering if I was using walking to justify higher calorie consumption or if I was just being wise to exercise more if I ate more. I told my husband I wasn't sure I could trust myself to go with him to a drinks-and-apps function tonight after work--I thought I might eat way too many calories.

Yesterday, I decided to go back and reread all of my posts to this blog as a way of reminding myself how competent I've been so far. As I was re-reading, I had these thoughts: "Wow, see, it is okay to treat myself occasionally in moderate amounts. I did it on X day and still lost weight that week." "I do know what I'm doing." "This is a hazier way to do things overall, but it does feel pretty clear-cut on a day-to-day basis." And you know what? That's how we lose weight, firm up our muscles, and get healthier: by making good decisions on a day-to-day, moment-to-moment basis.

When I woke up yesterday morning, with doubts still in my head, I ate the breakfast I eat daily now: 1 T of natural almond butter on toasted whole-grain bread with sliced apples on top and about a teaspoon of honey drizzled on top of that. I ate that despite being in a rush; my health is worth more than a little rush.

I took one of my friends to a doctor's appointment (we think she may have MS), and then I drove her to a point where one of her other friends were picking her up to take her home. (She lives 2.5 hours a way and does not feel safe driving now due to her symptoms.) We went into the mall at that exit to find somewhere to eat lunch, but--I am proud to say--nowhere in the mall sounded good to either one of us. (I sat this friend down last spring--when she was eating horribly and miserably gaining weight--and explained the reasoning behind cutting the consumption of meat and processed food and increasing vegetable intake, and she has really taken to all of it!) We left and eventually found our way to a Panera Bread Co. (St. Louis Bread Co. to some), where she ordered a veggie half-sandwich and tomato soup and I ordered a turkey pesto half-sandwich and French onion soup. Despite the fact that Panera is a better "fast food" choice than many places, the foods there are still high in calories. I ate my soup and a couple of bites of my sandwich, and then I stepped outside to call and change an appointment time. As I stood up, I realized my pants are looser around the waist--always my first sign of losing weight--and when I got outside, I realized I was pleasantly full. So I quit eating: I left half of my tasty sandwich sitting on my plate untouched.

When I got back to work, I realized that I might struggle to feel motivated about going for a walk on this below-freezing day, so I emailed several of my girlfriends in Atlanta to see if any of them were interested in joining me for a walk through the large park in Midtown. One wrote back to say she was, so I was then set for exercise.

I got home rather ravenous, and we had no extra fruit in our apartment, so I ate about six gingercrisps (60 calories), and I headed out the door to meet my exercise partner. We had a good walk and talk--walking quickly enough through the brisk air to keep me a bit winded after a while, but not so quickly that we couldn't manage a slightly breathless conversation most of the way. I got home feeling good from stretching my muscles; we had walked for about 45 minutes.

My husband was off at a class, so I turned on the living room radio to a new country station--I listen to a huge variety of music, and country's one of them--and I started chopping and peeling as I sang along.

First I sliced an African (similar to butternut) squash, and I used a grapefruit spoon and a pumpkin tool to scrape the seeds and pulp from the inside. I sprayed a pan with sides with non-stick spray for good measure, and I put the squash interior-up in the pan. I preheated the oven to 400 degrees F and mixed together some walnut oil, maple syrup, whole-wheat flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger, and I spread that over the interior of the squash pieces. I put it in the oven to roast for about 40 minutes.

I took a package of extra-firm tofu out of the freezer and defrosted it for about 4 minutes in the microwave. (Freezing tofu before using it gives it a firmer texture.) I drained off the fluid and took the block of tofu out of its package. I put the tofu on the plate with a high rim, put a piece of plastic wrap on the tofu, and put my heaviest cutting board, topped with several books, on top of the tofu and plastic wrap. Then I left it to press the tofu. Within 20 minutes, a good bit more water was extracted from the tofu, making it much more firm.

I washed and half-way peeled some fingerling sweet potatoes and sliced them into long, skinny pieces like French fries. I tossed them with olive oil, Mrs. Dash garlic-and-herbs seasoning, and two dashes of Lawry's seasoning salt. I sprayed a cookie sheet with a dash of non-stick spray and spread the sweet potatoes on it. I then baked them, as well, for 20 minutes at 400, flipping the fries after 10 minutes. I timed them to go into the oven to be ready at the same time as the squash. (For a crisper texture, I might try a higher temperature if they were the only thing in the oven.)

I put water in a steamer pot on to boil, and I got out a bunch of asparagus. I rinsed them and sliced off the bottom third of each stalk--the tough part of the stalk that some people eat but that I prefer not to use. I set the asparagus aside. (As I was waiting for my husband to be on his way home, I occasionally tossed more water into the steamer pot to keep it from boiling away.)

I put two teaspoons of peanut oil in a non-stick pan and heated it to medium-high. When it was good and hot, I pan-fried the tofu in the oil for about ten minutes, tossing regularly. Then I added some Whole Foods peanut sauce to the tofu, stirred it around, and turn the heat on that eye to low.

When the squash and sweet potatoes were done, I turned the oven to 200 degrees and left them in. (Unfortunately, my squash seasoning all slid off the squash and caramelized to the point of burning in the bottom of the pan.)

I called my husband to find out he was a couple of miles from home. I waited a couple of minutes and then put the asparagus into the steamer pot to steam for about 4 minutes.

I grated two tablespoons of strong Parmesan Reggiano and mixed the cheese with a bit of salt and pepper. I pulled the squash and sweet potatoes out of the oven. My husband arrived just as the asparagus was done. I tossed the asparagus with the cheese, salt, and pepper mixture, and we served ourselves dinner with big glasses of tasty alkaline water. It was all delicious--the sweet squash, the sweet-and-savory combination of sweet potatoes with garlic, the slightly sour asparagus with the salty cheese on it, and the comforting flavor of peanut sauce on crispy tofu.


And I thought, "You know--I can do this; I really can."

Tacos and . . . soup?

I remember learning, in WW circles, that it is good to eat a salad or soup before every meal so that you are less hungry for the (usually more fattening) main dishes. The idea never appealed to me, though: I hadn't yet learned to make salads interesting without making them high in fat and calories, and the soups that came to mind were the ones like the awful WW no-point veggie soup with cabbage in it. Bleh--no thank you.

I've been revisiting the idea lately, though, because I love a good salad now, and if you shop at Whole Foods (or similar stores), you can get ready-made, decently low-calorie soups that are really worth eating--like the refrigerated pumpkin soup the store is currently selling that is 110 calories for a cup. Delicious.

In Southwestern food, it is common to serve pumpkin in or alongside dishes that contain corn and black beans, so I've taken to doing the same thing. Pumpkin foods can be made savory, but as mildly sweet foods, they add a nice foil to saltier Southwestern/Tex-Mex fare. Last night, I made veggie tacos (black beans, guacamole, salsa, sprouted cilantro--hey, no cheese!) with pumpkin soup on the side.



With this meal, I was able to enjoy a crunchy, delicious blue-corn taco and a side of tasty, flavorful soup for a moderate calorie count--instead of eating three tacos as I would be tempted to do if they were our only food offering for the evening.

Oh yum

Above is the meal we had for dinner last night. In the forefront is an egg (or free-range Egg Beaters, really)-based dish that I made. I thought it was going to be delicious. It was frozen hashbrowns topped with broccoli topped with an egg, herb, and cheese mixture, and baked until firm. It was . . . edible. I won't make it again.

I wish I had another photo showing the salad in the background in greater detail. It turned out to be the star of the meal. I thought briefly about taking a photo of it by itself in the middle of dinner, but I was too busy gobbling it down and moaning with the sheer pleasure of it.

I based it on a blogger's recipe, but I cannot for the life of me remember where I saw it, and I couldn't find it last night when I was ready to cook, either, so I improvised.

Mixed greens in lemon dressing with honey-roasted vegetables and pan-fried goat cheese

Serves 2

4 oz. herbed log of goat cheese
4 egg whites
1/2 c. of Italian-seasoned bread crumbs
3 T. of olive oil

3-4 c. chopped fresh veggies (I used carrots, yellow squash, and broccoli)
2 tsp. olive oil
1 tsp. honey
1 tsp. dried rosemary
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper

3 c. mixed greens salad mix
1 T. sundried tomatoes, packed in oil
2-3 T. lemon dressing (see the recipe a few posts ago)

Slice your goat cheese log into approx. 1/2" slices. You should end up with about six slices total. (One easy way to slice soft goat cheese is with a piece of unflavored floss.)

Beat your egg whites in a small bowl.

Pour the bread crumbs into another small bowl.

Dip each piece of cheese into egg and then dredge it in breadcrumbs. As you make them, place the breaded goat cheese slices on a plate. Put the plate in a fridge, and refrigerate for at least one hour.

Preheat the oven to 375.

In the meantime, chop your mixed vegetables, and combine them in a bowl with the oil, honey, rosemary, salt, and pepper. Toss together.

Put your veggies on a jelly roll pan (a cookie sheet with slightly raised edges), and roast them 20-40 minutes, depending on how thick you cut your veggies. (If the baking pan you are using tends to make things stick to it, spray it with cooking spray first.) About halfway through the cooking time, take the pan out of the oven and stir the vegetables.

When your vegetables are about 10 minutes from being done, put your salad mix into a very large bowl.

Chop your sundried tomato pieces into little bits, and toss them in the salad.

Take the vegetables out of the oven.

Heat 3 T. of olive oil in a non-stick pan to med-high heat. Pan-fry the goat cheese pieces for 2-3 minutes on each side.

While they are frying, toss the vegetables with your salad mix and the lemon dressing. Divide your salad into two bowls (for serving two people).

When the goat cheese is golden-brown on both sides, remove it and transfer it to the waiting salad bowls. Serve immediately.

The goat cheese pieces will ooze into your salad when you cut into them. The vegetables will taste sweet from roasting with honey. The combination of the salty cheese, slightly tart dressing, sweet vegetables, and mildly bitter salad greens will be heavenly together.

Non-fat, tasty vegan soup--really, can it be??

I saw this recipe in the Moosewood Restaurant's cookbook of low-fat meals. The recipe claimed that no one who had ever tried this soup had failed to like it. That sort of statement sounds so preposterous that I thought, "How can I not make this recipe?"

Given the absence of fat in the recipe, I was expecting it might make something that was not terribly tasty . . . bland, boring, exactly what many people expect out of high-vegetable, low-fat cooking. But boy, was I wrong.

The trick is to squirt in the juice of a lime wedge or two into individual bowls at serving time, and stir the lime in a bit. The sweet-tartness of the lime pulls the soup together in an amazing way. Every herbivore and omnivore I've served it to has liked it, just like the book said.


Sweet Potato and Corn Chowder

1 cup finely chopped onion
1 chile, seeded and minced (I use a mild poblano, as I can't handle really spicy foods)
2 cloves garlic, minced
Up to 4 cups vegetable broth
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 medium sweet potato, cubed
1 medium red bell pepper, chopped
3 cups corn kernels, fresh or frozen (I use fresh and cut them off the cob before cooking--fresh corn is highly preferable to frozen, as frozen corn has largely stopped being sweet and started being just starchy)
chopped cilantro and lime wedges (for individual servings)

Chop all of the vegetables and flavorings for your soup. You'll be getting a bit of a work-out chopping it all.

Add one cup vegetable broth, the onions, chile and garlic to a heavy, pref. non-stick saucepan. Bring it to boil, cut back heat to a simmer and cover. Cook and occasionally stir for 10 minutes.

Make a cumin paste with the cumin and 3 teaspoons of the vegetable broth. Add paste to the saucepan, cover, and simmer for 2 minutes.

Add the sweet potato and one cup of the broth and bring back a simmer, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes.

Add the corn and the bell pepper, one cup of the broth and return to simmer, cover and cook for 10 minutes.

Place approximately half of the soup in a blender or food processor and puree, add back to saucepan. Add the last of the broth if the soup is too thick. Serve with the lime wedges and cilantro in separate dishes.

Enjoy! (You can also find more free Moosewood recipes here. I highly recommend the cookbook as well.)